Over the weekend, I went to the Gem Show in Tucson with some friends. I’m not particularly enthralled by the gems, although they are fun to look at for about an hour. However, one part of the Gem Show that I missed in previous years blew me away when I was able to visit this year – The African Art Village. Now I can’t be sure how much of the artwork there was authentic or actually flown in from Africa, but even still, I was mesmerized by the art.

One of my friends that I was there with is a ceramist. At one point, I thought that I was clever to say that, “so much of this art reminds me of modernism,” and she was quick to point out that much of the modernism movement was actually influenced by African art. Now why wasn’t I ever taught that in art history class? (Or maybe I slept through it)? Either way, I could not stop feeling incredibly inspired by the simple yet striking and abstract depictions of the human figure and animals. I wanted to take the entire “village” home with me! I can definitely see the relationship to modern art, and even more so, much of the modern day illustration. It makes me want to draw, draw, draw…

I took some pictures on my horrible Blackberry camera, hoping that maybe the inspiration will fire you up too! What do you think?

 

African Art Village

African Art Village

I love the red mask and the white one with the very long face.

African Art Village

African Art Village

This one was cracking me up!

Tucson-20130210-00254

African Art Village

I loved these textiles, and someone bought the one on the right while I was standing there. I really wanted the one on the left.